Forillon National Park

Forillon National Park
Coordinates: 48 ° 55 '23.9 "  N , 64 ° 23' 43.3"  W.
Location:	Quebec , Canada
Next city:	Gaspé (Québec)
Surface:	244 km²
Founding:	1970
Visitors:	155,027 (2016/2017)

The Forillon National Park ( French Parc national du Canada Forillon ; English Forillon National Park of Canada ) has existed since 1970, making it the oldest of the three national parks in the Canadian province of Québec .

It is located on the eastern edge of the Gaspésie peninsula in the Gaspé municipality . The peninsula is also the northeastern end of the Appalachian Mountains .

According to the Canadian national park system, according to which each of these parks should represent an ecoregion, the 240.35 km² Forillon Park stands for the mountain regions of Monts Notre-Dame and Mont Mégantic . In addition to the forests that are typical there, the park also includes a coastal fringe, marshland, dunes and sometimes heavily eroded rocks.

climate

The annual average temperature is 2.9 ° C. The average temperatures in January and July are −12 ° C and 17 ° C, respectively. The frost period varies between 120 and 140 days a year. Annual precipitation averages 1117 mm, of which 30% falls in the form of snow.

geology

Above a line of 60 m above sea level, over 90% of the deposits are of glacial origin. In addition, there is iron-containing podsol .

history

prehistory

Around 16,000 BC After the last glacial period, known in North America as the Wisconsin glaciation , the glaciers began to slowly retreat northwards. In a process lasting several millennia, a forest area developed from a landscape dominated by mosses and grasses, in which around 6000 BC. BC also the red oak settled.

During an excavation campaign that Parks Canada organized in 1994, traces of people were found in the area of ​​the park dating back to 7000 BC. Go back BC. Projectile points were found in the Anse au Griffon valley and at the Penouille point, and others at three other sites. At that time the landscape was more tundra-like , and only between 5000 and 2000 BC. There was a warming that created a landscape similar to today's.

Centuries before the arrival of the first Europeans, Mi'kmaq villages existed in the bays of Anse aux Sauvages , Saint-Georges Cove and Grande-Grave . Often only single families lived in smaller bays.

French and British colonists

Several attempts to fish were made during French rule, which began in the early 17th century and ended around 1760, but failed.

During the British colonial rule, which followed the French, fishing and export companies set up fishing stations along the coasts around the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and also on the Gaspé Peninsula. They also gave loans to fishermen. Most of the families that settled, and the laborers who were soon hired, came from the British Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey . Family names such as Bourgaise, Fruing, Gavey, Janvrin, LeBoutillier, Lemesurier, Lescelleur, Luce, Pipon or Simon are common.

The brothers Pierre and William Simon, who came to the country in 1817, founded an extensive fish business in Anse-aux-Sauvages . In 1841 a sawmill was built, which provided the material for boats, but also for houses. There was also a flour mill that all residents of the region used. The Simon brothers also competed with the Fruing Company by also founding a forge. The Fruing Society, in turn, went back to William Fruing , who in 1855 moved the center of his business to Grand-Grave. In 1861 450 fishermen worked for him.

Canadian province of Quebec

Xavier Blanchette's shop and fish store, built in Grande-Grave in 1888. The building is now a recognized Federal Heritage Building , so it is subject to the protection legislation for the cultural heritage of Canada. It was owned by the William Hyman & Sons Company at the time. The building represents a number of buildings of this type that have since disappeared on the south side of the Forillon Peninsula.

From the end of the 19th century, the two fishing companies in the region organized the fishing and processing of cod in Grande-Grave from May to October . Several hundred families and numerous day laborers dried and cured the fish for export to Spain, Italy and the West Indies . 26 buildings still exist today, including the Hyman Store built in 1864, which goes back to William Hyman.

Yet the economic base on the bare basis of cod was dangerously narrow. So one began to practice the difficult agriculture on the Gaspé peninsula. This was particularly possible in Anse au Griffon . It has been linked to Gaspé Bay by a path since French times. In 1851 the government approved the colonization. John Le Boutillie, who first settled at the estuary, was followed by others in the portage ; 14 houses were built there. By 1900 37 families were already living there. They grew grain and vegetables, and raised dairy and meat cattle.

As is so often the case in Canada, logging provided a third basis in addition to fishing and agriculture. The companies included the Calhoun Lumber Co. from New Brunswick .

During the Second World War , a battery was built on the site of the later Fort Peninsula to defend the peninsula if necessary. A naval base was built in Gaspé Bay. This HMCS Fort Ramsay naval base was inaugurated on May 1, 1942. At times more than 2,000 men, including the army and air force, were stationed here.

There was considerable resistance to the establishment of the national park, especially as 225 families were to be relocated. With the Kouchibouguac National Park in New Brunswick at the end of 1969 and the Forillon National Park in 1972, such facilities were created for the first time in the francophone part of Canada. Until then, national parks had emerged exclusively in the Anglo-Saxon part of Canada, many of them in sparsely populated areas. In contrast, Lionel Bernier, who published a book about these events in 2001, organized the resistance of those who had been expropriated in favor of the park. While Québec was experiencing the Silent Revolution , federal agencies were faced for the first time with other forms of resistance and with the memory of the evictions of Acadians and Québecers in earlier times. Since then, Parks Canada , a federal agency, has developed a detailed negotiation process for the establishment of new national parks to avoid such conflicts.

Landscapes

Cap Bon Ami

The mountain range that the park borders was formed around 375 million years ago. Today the area is now home to a very complex ecosystem. The rocky coasts, rivers, lakes and waterfalls make for a varied landscape. Due to its location on the Atlantic Ocean , the park has a maritime touch. The lighthouses on the coast can be visited. A path above the rugged cliffs is ideal for hiking. From there you have a view of the characteristic landscape of the area.

Flora and fauna

Iridescent or different colored iris

95% of the park is covered by boreal forests, 696 plant species have been counted. The unusual habitats include the arctic-alpine flora of the cliffs, the plants of the salt marshes and those of the dune landscapes. The Gaspé Peninsula is an area in which plants could survive after the last glacial period, which are now located much further north. There are 115 species among them.

In the park area, the above-mentioned natural preconditions and human interventions resulted in highly complex ecosystems in which numerous ecological niches with a corresponding biodiversity developed. A distinction is made between ten ecosystems, namely forests, cliffs, alpine meadows, sand dunes, lakes, river systems, freshwater and saltwater meadows, coasts and fallow land.

In the case of trees, companies of fir and yellow birch , fir and paper birch or those of maple and yellow birch predominate. A total of 63 such plant communities can be distinguished . The red oak populations, which are widespread but rare on the Gaspé Peninsula, could be detected at 42 locations, as was shown in 2004 on the basis of aerial photographs. The total number of trees was estimated at around 300 copies. The peninsula also represents its northernmost natural range, which has been supported by a reforestation program since 2006, just like the paper birch. In addition, it could be proven that the major fires of 1846, 1905 and 1945 had serious effects on the tree population, as did the infestation by Choristoneura freemani in the years 1975 to 1985.

Porcupines climbing trees, which are not porcupines, as they are found in the Old World, but tree prickers whose physique has developed in a similar direction through convergence.

Despite the fact that the reserve is predominantly marine in character, there are large numbers of terrestrial mammals. These include moose , deer and black bears . Moose can be found on the one hand in the rugged mountain regions, on the other hand in places where agricultural activity was given up a long time ago. There are also beavers , red foxes , coyotes , but also lynxes. However, while the bobcat only occurs to a limited extent in the enormous amounts of snow due to its smaller feet, the Canadian lynx, which is better adapted in this regard, is more widespread. While the Gaspé Peninsula is one of the northernmost occurrences for the former, it is one of the southernmost for the latter. Also Pumas (Coogars) are found here, their distribution pattern only slightly northward goes further. The snowshoe hare is also more common in the north .

The tree prickers found in America belong to the group of rodents just like the woodchuck , while the striped chipmunk or eastern chipmunk and the gray squirrel are also rodents, but belong to the squirrel family . The American mink belongs to the martens, just like the ermine , i.e. to the dog-like species . Bats like the big brown bat , Myotis lucifugus , here called Little brown bat, Myotis septentrionalis (Northern long-eared bat) or the ice gray bat also occur in the park.

Gapper's red-backed vole ( Myodes gapperi ) is a bank vole

Among the Wühlmäusearten the park belonging to the genus counts Rötelmäuse scoring Gapper's or Southern red-backed vole ( Myodes gapperi ). The long-tailed shrew or rock shrew ( Sorex dispar ), a species of the shrew family that occurs, which is extremely rare in land-dwelling mammals, is practically only found in the Appalachian Mountains and thus in Gaspé Park in its northernmost distribution area . on echolocation understands. In addition, there is the wood jumping mouse ( Napaeozapus insignis ) from the family of jerboa .

It is more like sea birds that remind you of the proximity to the Atlantic. They are attracted by the rich feed reservoir and numerous protected breeding grounds on the Gaspé Peninsula and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The spring migration brings shaggots , which belong to the cormorants , black guillemots and razorbills , which are to be counted among the alken birds , the occasional kittiwake , which fly as far as northwestern Europe, and other species of gulls into the park area. The cliffs at Cape Bon Ami are home to the largest bird colonies during the breeding season. 225 species of birds have been counted in the park that nest there or at least visit the park. The common tern also breeds on the coasts , but there are also ospreys as well as species from the large family of sandpipers and snipe birds .

In addition to seabirds, there are a large number of passerine birds and woodpecker species, plus 26 species of birds of prey identified in the park . In winter, the buzzard can be found here , but also the hen harrier and the smallest species of falcon in North America, the great spotted falcon, also known as the American kestrel. All year round comes Heron ago on the coasts, of its prey, especially in the marshes of Penouille place.

Large marine mammals can often be seen off the coast, such as dolphins such as the pilot whale or pilot whale , which, however, rarely approach the coast, or the white-sided dolphin . Various types of whale can also be seen here, such as the blue whale , the fin whale , the humpback whale , the porpoise and the minke or minke whale . Various seal species are relatively common, such as the gray seals that migrate through , the harp seals , which find one of their southernmost refuges here, or the permanent seal .

The crepuscular leopard frog

In Forillon Park there are also numerous species of reptiles and amphibians, including the toad species Anaxyrus americanus , known in English as mink frog, in French as grenouille verte, known frog species Rana septentrionalis , the American marsh frog , which finds its northernmost refuge here, Pseudacris crucifer , a tree frog, or the wood frog .

The blue-spotted cross-toothed newt known as blue-spotted salamander

A salamandre cendrée ( Plethodon cinereus )

The blue-spotted cross-toothed newt , a tailed amphibian from the family of cross-toothed newts, is the northernmost representative of this family. In addition, there is the red-backed salamander or Salamandre cendrée ( Plethodon cinereus ), the spotted salamander and the very common greenish newt .

literature

• Maxime Saint-Amour: Forillon National Park , Ottawa 1988.
• Ronald Rudin: The First French-Canadian National Parks: Kouchibouguac and Forillon in History and Memory , in: Journal of the Canadian Historical Association / Revue de la Société historique du Canada 22, (2011) 161-200.
• M. Krieber, C. Barrette: Aggregation behavior of harbor seals At Forillon National Park, Canada , in: Journal of Animal Ecology 53.3 (1984) 913-928.
• Ariane Tremblay-Daoust: Dynamique du chêne rouge à sa limite nordique de distribution naturelle au Parc National Forillon, Gaspésie (Québec) , Université du Québec à Rimouski, 2011. (thèse about the red oak , which has its northernmost occurrence in the park)
• Donald F. McAlpine, Ian M. Smith (Eds.): Assessment of Species Diversity in the Atlantic Maritime Ecozone , NRC Research Press, 2010. (Overview of biodiversity in the ecozone)

Web links

Commons : Forillon National Park  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Forillon National Park of Canada , on Parks Canada , (English)
• Parc national du Canada Forillon , on Parcs Canada , (French)
• Center culturel de Griffon
• Commission de toponymie du Québec: Parc national de Forillon

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tremblay-Daoust, p. 30.
2. ↑ H. Asnong, PJH Richard: La végétation et le climat postglaciaires du center et de l'Est de la Gaspésie, au Québec , in: Géographie physique et Quaternaire, Vol 57, 2003, pp 37-63..
3. ↑ Mario Mimeault: Gaspésie , Presses Université Laval, 2005, p. 97.
4. ↑ Xavier Blanchette Storage Recognized Federal Heritage Building , Canada's Historic Places.
5. ↑ Lionel Bernier: La Bataille de Forillon , Fides, 2nd ed. 2009.
6. ^ Y. Boulanger, D. Arseneault: Spruce budworm outbreaks in eastern Quebec over the last 450 years , in: Canadian Journal of Forest Research 34 (2004) 1035-1043